OnPaper

The principle

If the printer can be connected to a camera you can print your documents with OnPaper:

No driver is needed

No need to recognise the printer brand, model, type

No need to download drivers

No need cloud connection, we take care of your privacy

How it works

With OnPaper you should just know these few information:

Paper size (Letter, A4, A5, …)

The kind of printer: Black and white InkJet or Laser, Photographic printer

That’s all. Then you select the document from your mobile device and share it with OnPaper app. In a bunch of seconds you have the image of your document ready for printing.

Documents and images converted for printing are saved in the folder OnPaper under your Image Gallery for future reuse or deletion.

Join the test team today for free!

OnPaper app is under development; the first release will be officially available on the market by the mid of October, 2017 but the pre-release versions are already available for free on GooglePlay and Amazon We like to know your valuable comments: install it today and send us your feedback and questions at balearicdynamics@gmail.com

I have made and used for months the filament roll support based on the mechanics illustrated in the mentioned project but some filament issues have not yet been solved by this tool.

When it is used by 3D printers filament – usually almost robust – is pulled by the extruder while the roll is placed nearby free to rotate. I have observed meaningful differences in the material behaviour depending on the usage level, based on 1Kg filament rolls. A new filament spool flows almost well but the force applied by the extruder should be relatively relevant. The extruder motor (a Nema17 stepper motor) is not damaged but the two gears of the extruder collect particles of the plastic material due the applied force; this requires extruder maintenance after a while to avoid clogging of the filament in the hot end. These particles tends to detach and mix with the clean filament while it is feeding the hot end nozzle increasing clogging problems and a general more frequent nozzle wear; this occurs more frequently with 0.3 mm diameter nozzles.

When the filament roll is half used and more its spirals become smaller and in some environmental conditions the filament tend to break too frequently.

Long print jobs become less reliable; for example I can’t leave the printer working alone for an entire night without controlling it. Thus the idea to make a controlled filament feeder figured a precise series of issues to solve.

Make the automated engine almost simple and easy to reproduce

Reduce as much as possible the number of non-3D printable components to make it

Reduce as much as possible the stress applied to the extruder while printing

Use a low cost and easy to program micro controller board

Use the weight load sensor to keep under control che filament consumption and filament feeding

Manage the environmental noise interfering with the filament weight measures

Also using a single 3D printer we frequently manage more filament rolls (different colors) not all at the same level depending on the print job we are doing. Using an Arduino and the TLE94112EL shield motor controller may result the most reliable and cheaper solution: the board can control up to 6 different brushed motors with simple commands. This Infineon board has its own half bridge motor controller including three different frequencies PWM channels: 80, 100 and 200 Hz. In practice this means running motors sending commands from Arduino keeping the MCU free to other tasks while motors are running.

The microcamera case should be connected to the microdrone arm support, the white component in the slideshow below. The two-parts arm-support has the advantage to be oriented and locked in different azimuth positions between 0 DEG (ground alignment) and about 60 DEG.

[st-gallery id=”5506e0d649d1f”]

Limitations

A well known limitation is that, due the very reduced size of the microdrone (about 14×14 cm) it is also reduced its payload weight so it is was excluded a priori any sort of automated camera movement control. Instead the stabilization of the video shooting is reached with rubber supports.

Another problem found during tests is setting the camera to the most vertical position (60-70 DEG). Due the unbalanced weight between the lenses body and the rest of the circuit when the camera is in a quasi-vertical position the drone tend to be unbalanced on the front side. This problem can be solved in two ways: adding a variable-length back queue to the drone body with the advantage of right balance and more stability or – a more complex solution – moving the camera second-half arm support almost in the same position of the lenses body.

The drone legs should be changed as the camera body increase the total drone height. A temporary solution, as shown in the images, has been found adopting commercial plastic hose clamps. These will be replaced by a carbon-fiber flexible and very lightweight part under construction.

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